Dentons, which has more than 6,500 lawyers across 50 different countries, has confirmed that it will take up to four school-leavers from September 2017 in a new programme named “Your Bright Future”.

The Level 7 Apprenticeship, which has been formed by a Trailblazer group, will take six years to complete, eventually leading to be qualified as a solicitor. Apprentices will split their time between Dentons, undertaking paid paralegal-level work, and completing an LLB in Legal Practice at BPP University.

Jeremy Cohen, Dentons’ CEO for the UK, Middle East and Africa, Jeremy Cohen, commented on the programme:

“Diversity and inclusion is at the heart of our firm’s culture, and we already work with a number of organisations with the objective of increasing access to the profession from under-represented groups.

“By broadening our recruitment activities to a much more diverse talent pool, the apprenticeship programme advances Dentons’ commitment to the social mobility agenda a stage further.

“We are very excited to be launching this initiative which will enable us to access talent that may be put off by the costs of university tuition or want to enter work at an earlier stage.”

“The new solicitor apprenticeship programme will enable Dentons to continue developing the best legal talent in the industry, and provide ambitious young people with the opportunity to kick-start their legal careers earlier.”